UNICEF and Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Offices February 2016 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

a FAMILY ASSETS: Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana ©United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), , 2016

UNICEF Kenya Office P.O. Box 44145-00100 GPO Nairobi

Written 2014 by Eugenie Reidy Edited 2014 by Kate Dunn

For further information, please contact: Patrizia Di Giovanni, Deputy Representative, UNICEF Kenya: [email protected] Philip Aemun, Chief, Zonal Office, UNICEF Kenya: [email protected] Haithar Somo Ahmed, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kenya: [email protected]

Cover photograph: ©UNICEF/KENA00454/Noorani

b Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Foreword

Right at the heart of the Turkana County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) 2013- 2018 the blue print that guides the county and other stakeholders in realizing the citizens’ aspirations—is the need to put in place a robust child protection system that appreciates the context and the dynamism of the Turkana pastoralists. In order for my government to realize the access to basic social services and adequate infrastructural development, investment in the most disadvantaged, especially girls and women is key. Girls experience varied challenges including the adverse effects of harmful cultural practices like child marriage. The girls who are married early are majorly denied their rights to access quality basic education and are not in a position to offer meaningful development to themselves and their community. The 2015 UNICEF report on Child Marriage has found that one third of women in Turkana today were married before the age of 18, while still children. Many of these girls had no choice in getting married and the emerging trend indicates some of them are forced to drop out of school to start a family. Also from this report Child Marriage is observed as a critical child protection issue among the Turkana pastoralists—that heavily contributes to violations of the rights of the girl child. While nomadic pastoralist families are the hardest to reach, including the hardest to involve in management of social services, or law enforcement; this report will be a key resource to the County Government in putting in place a necessary legislative and protective framework to provide for consultation among the key stakeholders (especially pastoralist parents) and coordination of programmes that seek to eliminate the negative indicators on child marriage in Turkana. The county will support all efforts that will enable residents of Turkana County to understand the rights of girls, and mobilizing all duty-bearers in ensuring violations against the girl child (including child marriage) is eliminated through a participatory process and supportive policies and legal frameworks. Hence, though the findings and recommendations outlined in this report, Turkana County intends to use the report to guide appropriate solutions for preventing and addressing child marriage and the rights violations linked to it. The Turkana County Government is committed to ending child marriage in Turkana, but we call upon our development partners and communities to pull together in addressing this problem. I strongly believe, it is possible to create an enabling environment where a Turkana girl survives, thrives, and succeeds by accessing her rights. That way, a dream of a just, equitable and prosperous Turkana County will be realized for all citizens, especially girls and other vulnerable adolescents. I wish to thank UNICEF Kenya for the commitment and effort to get baseline information on child marriage, as outlined in this report. I hope now UNICEF and other stakeholders will support the County Government in implementing the stated recommendations programmatically—ending child marriage in Turkana; Saying No to Child Marriage! H.E., HON. Josphat Koli Nanok The Governor, Turkana County Government Lodwar, Kenya

i Prologue

Let me start by telling you a story. In a very small village in Turkana, there was a girl who always wanted to go to school. Her parents kept promising to agree, while their agenda was only to ensure she would safely ‘mature’ for marriage. At the tender age of thirteen she was married to a frail seventy year old man, in the age set of her paternal grandfather, who already had several wives. After three years he died, leaving this girl widowed at the age of sixteen. In that short period as a wife, she endured sexual harassment and abuse from the sons and grandsons of her husband, endured humiliation and slavery from the older co-wives, and suffered the health issues of being sexually active at such a young age. What followed her husband’s death was not release but rather her inheritance by his younger brother, a 65-year old man. This was necessary for her parents to keep the bride price – large numbers of animals – that had been paid to them by the first husband. So again she became a prisoner, of another family. This girl was denied her childhood, her adolescence, the right to decide her future, the right to go to school, and the right to a better life. She was helpless to the decisions of her parents, the very persons entrusted by nature and by law to safeguard her. Has the story moved you? Do you wish you could have taken action? Do you wish you understood better what this girl and many others like her went through, and why? Are you involved in child protection, education, legislation, law enforcement, policy and advocacy? Or do you simply believe in child rights and wish you knew what might lessen such suffering and violation of child rights? If so, this paper should be read by you, and is important to you. The discussion in this paper provides a basis and essential data for understanding legislations in Kenya designed to protect children from early and forced marriages. It discusses possible interventions, for instance incentivizing girls to go to school—and parents to send them to school—by offering bursaries and job opportunities. It explores the crucial need for legal deterrents alongside these incentives, including measures for punishing parents and guardians who endorse early and forced marriages. Kenya ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and has progressively been improving its legislation in regards to child care and protection. This includes: the Bill of Rights (2010), enshrined in the Constitution, which protects marginalized and vulnerable groups including children; the Marriage Act of 2013; the Victim Protection Act of 2014; and laws that protect against domestic violence. UNICEF is a key partner of the Government of Kenya in this regard, and its efforts for child protection and education in Turkana have supported both government and development partners in terms of resources and technical support. Awareness-raising and understanding is also a critical area of support. I believe this paper will be an eye-opener for many agencies and people who work for the welfare of children in Turkana and other pastoralist areas in the region. The paper has so accurately captured the ‘child marriage’ phenomenon that there is no doubt it will be expedient even for researchers and specialists.

ii Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Finally, as someone who personally hails from Turkana and was a victim of early marriage and consequently a defender of child rights in various capacities and in different organizations including CBOs, NGOs, government and the UN, I hold this subject very close to my heart. It is my hope and belief that if all stakeholders adopt the spirit, letter and practice of this study, early marriage will be a practice of the past in Turkana.

Honourable Joyce Akai Emanikor, HSC Member of Parliament for Turkana County, Kenya National Assembly Nairobi, Kenya

iii Preface

Imagine how many girls in Turkana are dreaming of getting a quality education, of developing themselves and their community, and of leading the life of their choice. Now consider that one third of women in Turkana today, including the little girl Honourable Joyce Emanikor brings our attention to in the prologue, were married before the age of 18. Many were forced, tricked or simply blindly led into marriage. Those met during this research remember seeing a handful of animals exchanged, feeling fearful, and being unable to refuse or insist on staying in school, family or childhood. This report explains child marriage in Turkana from the perspective of those directly affected by it. It shows that child marriage is not an anachronism, practised only by ignorant and remote communities; rather it is widespread across society in Turkana, for a myriad of reasons that we cannot ignore or dismiss as ‘harmful culture’. Child marriage is a critical child protection issue—and also one that reaches well beyond that, into a broad range of child rights violations. These include a child’s right to protection from sexual exploitation, violence, child labour and separation from parents. And a child’s right to a family environment, leisure and play, education, even survival and development. In showing that child marriage in Turkana is driven by a diversity of factors ranging from insecurity and lost livelihoods to the short reach of the law and lack of faith in schools’ ability to protect or provide for girls, this report makes plain that many actors are needed to address it. UNICEF stands committed alongside government, partner agencies and communities to address this problem, and calls on the support of other agencies working in areas including livelihoods, social protection, law and justice, and peace and security. Through its findings and recommendations, we intend this report to guide appropriate solutions for preventing and addressing child marriage and the rights violations linked to it. It is a demonstration of the corporate commitment of UNICEF and its partners to ending child marriage wherever it occurs—in Turkana and Kenya, in the wider region, and across the world. We hope many will join us in making this happen.

Madhavi Ashok, Deputy Representative (2011-2015) UNICEF KENYA

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Acknowledgements

This research began with UNICEF Kenya’s staff in Turkana, who felt that the issue of child marriage deserved better understanding and more comprehensive solutions. The Head of UNICEF’s Turkana Office and a Turkana himself, Philip Aemun, led this research from its inception. UNICEF Turkana colleagues and partners contributed and shaped the research at every step, and will lead the operationalization of solutions suggested. Particular thanks are owed to Patrick Karanja, Miriam Nawet, Kentaro Shimada and Brendan Ross (now UNCEF Somalia Support Centre) who took part in the research and defined the recommendations it made. Special appreciation to Eugenie Reidy who led the fieldwork and wrote this report when she was a staff member in the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office. After fieldwork, this report benefited from wide review by all UNICEF Kenya colleagues listed above, as well as Anna Berg, Jeannette Wijnants and Joanne Bosworth, and Cristina del Valle and Sandra Olsson from the West and Central Africa Regional Office. Sincere thanks are due to former UNICEF Kenya’s Deputy Representative Madhavi Ashok, who showed instant and lasting commitment to this issue and the research. Most importantly, the research would not have been possible without the open and generous participation of its informants, not least girls and women affected by child marriage themselves. Their stories are moving and illuminating, and their recommendations are wise and well-placed. All those who crafted this report hope it does justice to their time and inputs. As well as girls and women in Turkana, key informants included representatives of the Kenya and Turkana County governments (including from the Ministry of Education, Children’s Office, Gender and Social Development office, County Services, Chiefs, and the County Women’s Representative), faith-based organizations (including the Diocese of Lodwar and St Patrick’s Nomadic Girls Centre), service providers (primarily teachers and nurses), legal and community development agencies (including The Cradle, Turkana Women Advocacy and Development Organization (TWADO), the Children’s Welfare Society of Kenya), community organizations (local groups, women’s groups, elders groups known as eluk toliasi), and a number of other champions of girls rights in Turkana. To all these, sincere thanks are offered, along with the hope that they will continue to stand by UNICEF and its partners—the governments of Kenya and Turkana, legal and development stakeholders as well as communities themselves—so that lasting solutions can be found to address child marriage in Turkana.

v Executive Summary

The problem of child marriage in Turkana western Kenya. The Turkana are among rests on the economic and social value the country’s most impoverished people, of the girl. Enduring perceptions of girls and their region, also called Turkana, is as assets rather than rights-bearing the most undeveloped. They suffer from individuals underpin the high levels of a relative lack of and livelihood child marriage in Turkana. However the security, and virtually no formal welfare or issue needs also to be understood in protection. Looming resource projects— a wider context of development and oil and gas exploration, alternative power education failures, as well as the livelihood generation, gold mining and regional road pressures and insecurity making many networks—will most certainly add strain families increasingly desperate. to power dynamics between foreign and local, traditional and modern, and young Ultimately a transformation in gender and old. roles will be required in Turkana, to free girls from marriages which bring For the Turkana, wealth is traditionally significant economic benefits to their measured by the size of their herds. Girls families. However, if the governments of are a second source of family wealth. Turkana County and Kenya are to eliminate Fathers arrange the marriages of their this illegal practice, it is essential that a daughters—a cultural tradition that is long-term strategy be developed which deeply rooted and remains widespread recognizes and addresses the various among all social classes. Such marriages push or pull factors. Such a strategy require the payment of bride wealth to must: the family of the girl, who is commonly 1. Strengthen the role of girls and women still a child. Recent MICS data1 shows as rights-bearing individuals; that 32 per cent of Turkana women currently aged between 20 and 49 were 2. Ensure quality, relevant and safe married before 18; 14 per cent of 15-19 education for girls in Turkana; years olds are married; and almost 10 per 3. Support alternative role models and cent of girls were married before the age mentors for girls; and, of 15. The same survey also reveals that 4. Take steps to address the development 102 in every 1000 women in Turkana had failures and insecurity (of livelihoods as given birth by age 19. well as people and property) affecting families in Turkana. The choice This research found many Turkana girls The context (and parents) feel they face a choice Semi-nomadic pastoralists, the Turkana between marriage or schooling that people occupy a vast, dry landscape with rarely yields relevant or useful skills, and sparse vegetation and little rainfall in north can expose girls to unintended risks,

1 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) – Government-implemented survey supported by UNICEF. In review for publication

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including pregnancy. These options serve – among other examples, the researchers neither them nor their communities heard how an Assistant Chief was well. Pre-pubescent girls are neither sentenced to 20 years for marrying a psychologically nor physically prepared minor – it appears that many authority for marriage. While bride wealth may figures and influence-leaders are directly benefit their families, to be married involved, complicit or indifferent to when pubescent or even younger into a child marriage. As more community- polygamous household with hierarchies based paralegals are trained to promote of wives and their children, is devastating awareness, the legal deterrent may grow. to a girl’s rights and potential. The But today, evasion of this law remains alternative of a low quality education the rule rather than the exception across that seems to offer little hope of bringing most of Turkana. economic advantage and high likelihood of school drop-out, poverty, community Strengthening family bonds isolation and early pregnancy, is equally The payment for a bride can be unattractive. considerable, ranging from a handful of goats or sheep to hundreds, along The impact with cattle, camels and donkeys. The In Turkana (and in general) girls who marry payments are high even compared to under age are at higher risk of sexual other communities in Kenya or beyond and reproductive health problems, and who practise child marriage (a factor both infant and maternal mortality. They which increases men’s marrying age). have less control over their fertility and They can be transformative for families, their lives, are more likely to be denied and bride wealth can be critical to the education, and have reduced literacy, survival of families that have lost their life skills, and job prospects outside a entire herd to raids, drought or disease. traditional economy. At society level, child Life is hard and fortunes are fickle in marriage perpetuates the lower status of Turkana: the marriage of a daughter can women, and promotes gender inequity. It literally save the rest of the family from hinders the development of a community poverty and/or starvation. as a whole, under-using the economic The economic gain of marriage is potential of women and pushing inter- indivisible from social or political generational cycles of poverty. In the benefits. Kinship ties created enhance long-term this is sure to significantly protective social networks. A traditional slow the developmental progress of the marriage can also offer a woman wider Turkana County. protection, respect and a voice within the community. Her offspring share the Kenyan law respect she is accorded, described locally Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act makes as “children of the home (ng’ide awi)” – Early, Child and Forced Marriages (ECFM) in contrast to the so-called “children of illegal, as does the 2014 Marriages Act. the field (ng’ide akeor).” While the law is effective when applied

vii Development failures Thus an unsafe or ineffective education Many parents are obliged to make a system may be encouraging parents fateful choice—one child for school, the to arrange marriages for their female next to help care for the herds—because children. They may accept that schooling of both economic need and the laws is inevitable, but rarely see its tangible requiring that they educate their children. benefits. Many Turkana parents have seen little evidence that education for children is a Summary recommendations social or economic good. Those chosen Kenya’s government and partners for school may gain an education, but (including UNICEF) have largely not they often lose their place within their delivered quality education, economic families, while the employment and safety nets, social welfare systems, job income opportunities that are to come opportunities and development to Turkana. from schooling go unfulfilled. Several On most development indicators, Turkana issues undermining the credibility of ranks in the lowest percentile in Kenya2. education in Turkana include: Rural families are highly vulnerable to • A lack of education facilities in rural risks including drought and conflict, with areas—as a consequence children limited formal safety nets or protection. are sent to boarding schools and are This often results in distorted prioritization removed from community and parental of the financial benefits of marriage: a girl protection; becomes an economic asset for the bride wealth she attracts. Child marriage may • Poverty and lack of protective be traditional, but its persistence today is structures make girls in school justified by contemporary vulnerabilities. vulnerable to sexual exploitation and Recommendations for addressing it abuse, frequently resulting in early include: pregnancy; • Poor quality schooling results in 1. Distinguish traditional marriage from few children succeeding at school. unlawful child marriage Very few (19per cent, MICS 2014) In the long-term traditional rites of transition to secondary school, and passage for Turkana, including marriage even less to higher levels; and child bearing, will evolve. Traditions, • School-going girls are often alienated in many forms, will remain positive for from their communities and abandoned individuals and communities. Yet in the by their families (even if they have meantime, steps must be taken to ensure succeeded)—they are derisively called that no child enters marital union. All “children of the government” or worse, children should have the opportunity to prostitutes. fulfil their rights and potential.

2 Poverty in Turkana is 94.9per cent compared to a 45.9per cent; national average (Basic Report on Well-being in Kenya KIHBS 2005/06); Literacy is 18.1per cent compared to 66.4per cent (Commission for Revenue Allocation, Kenya County Fact Sheets, published by UNICEF 2013)

viii Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

2. Strengthen civil registration systems 5. Strengthen women’s leadership rapidly and empowerment programmes in In the immediate term, strengthened Turkana efforts to register births and marriages The continued engagement of women in will help to accurately monitor appliance political, civil and economic spheres will of the law. This will reinforce efforts to reinforce alternative life choices—and ensure that children are not married, development opportunities—for Turkana forced into sexual intercourse or child- girls. bearing before the age of 18. 6. Establish a girls rescue and 3. Improve schools – quality, relevance, rehabilitation centre protection, community engagement In Turkana, where many social services Faith must be restored in the education are delivered by the Catholic Church, system. Quality of schools must access to condoms, emergency improve—alongside relevance in terms contraception and family planning is of an enabling livelihood or employment limited. A Child Protection Centre (with a opportunities—so girls can succeed, girls rescue component and appropriate move to higher education, and secure outreach services) would offer temporary livelihoods. Schools must protect girls rescue to girls who have run away from being preyed upon by boys and from marriage, plus mentorship and life men (including teachers), while directly skills or other support, in a stigma-free addressing boys and men as agents of environment. Such a centre would also change in this. Community engagement limit vulnerability of girls in urban areas is key: the education system must be to further harm and negative coping closely linked with and strategies such as prostitution and crime. culture for it to have the necessary relevance and safety.

4. Improve safety nets and protection for rural livelihoods in Turkana The National and County Governments, agencies, investors and civil society must deliver effective economic safety nets for pastoralists and other rural Turkana livelihoods.

ix Contents

Foreword by H.E., Hon. Josphat Koli Nanok-The Governor, Turkana County Government i Prologue by Honourable Joyce Emanikor, MP Turkana County ii Preface by the former UNICEF Kenya Deputy Representative Madhavi Ashok iv Acknowledgements v Executive Summary vi Methodology xi 1. UNICEF and Child Marriage 1 2. Prevalence of Child Marriage in Turkana – wide and unseen 3 3. Traditional Marriage – strengthening wealth and society 5 3a. The prestige of traditional marriage 6 4. Vulnerability and Protection – drivers of child marriage today 8 4a. Child marriage and vulnerability 8 4b. Child marriage viewed as ‘protection from schools’ 11 5. Informal and Urban Child Marriage 14 5a. Rising informal marriage 14 5b. Urban ‘child marriage’, underage relationships and pregnancies 14 5c. Access to family planning 16 6. The Role of Law 18 7. Costs of Child Marriage 20 8. Challenge and Resistance 23 9. Recommendations 26 10. Conclusion 30 Annex 1: Case Studies 31

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Methodology

This study was undertaken at the request of the UNICEF Kenya’s Lodwar Office. Staff felt that addressing early, child and forced marriage (ECFM – hereafter child marriage) should begin with understanding it, and wanted to use long-standing relationships with communities across the county to guide participatory research whose findings could be shared far more widely than Turkana, or even Kenya. As well as giving voice to affected communities, the idea was to reality-check an issue typically regarded as a ‘negative cultural practice’ to be dealt with by child protection actors. By seeing it as part of a much broader reality—linked to livelihoods, education, security and development in general—the hope was (and is) that this research could guide a broader set of solutions, more appropriate and effective than those which currently exists. Against that background a small research team assembled and travelled across Turkana County over two weeks in late 2013. The researchers included several staff members from UNICEF’s Nairobi and Lodwar Offices with backgrounds in child protection and community development, and a staff member from UNICEF’s Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa with a background in anthropology. The methodology was participatory and qualitative, composed of semi-structured interviews and group discussions (5-15 people) with a broad range of informants. At local level these included girls themselves, women, mothers and fathers, and community elders or representatives. Service providers were consulted, primarily teachers and health workers, and also faith-based organizations including the Diocese of Lodwar and St Patrick’s Nomadic Girls Centre. Legal and community development agencies consulted included The Cradle, TWADO, the Children’s Welfare Society of Kenya, while community organizations included a number of local groups, women’s groups, and elders groups known as eluk toliasi. Key informants from both Kenya and Turkana County governments were from the Ministry of Education, Children’s Office, Gender and Social Development Office, County Services, Chiefs, and the County Women’s Representative. In total about 100 people were consulted for this research, in interviews or group discussions. The research also included a desk review of academic, development and media resources related to child marriage in Turkana or other contexts—and was backed by secondary quantitative data where possible.

xi xii Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

UNICEF and 1 Child Marriage

Empowering girls and women and issue. In 2012, UNICEF was instrumental ensuring girls and boys are healthy is at in organizing the inaugural International the core of UNICEF’s mission. Globally, Day of the Girl Child3, which had child UNICEF is committed to efforts to end marriage as its theme. The event raised child marriage, defined as a formal awareness of the issue and helped refocus marriage or informal union before age attention on this harmful practice. Since 18, recognizing that it can lead to a then UNICEF efforts to address child lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation. marriage have gained pace at country UNICEF seeks to use its global leadership and regional levels. Among these is the position, its mandate to provide data agency’s foremost role in the African and evidence on child marriage, and its Union’s 2014-15 campaign to end child broad field-based programming in various marriage – one motivated by the fact that sectors to bring about change on this Africa is home to 15 out of 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage.

UNICEF’s 2009 report, State of the World’s Children, showed that: • Girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school, more likely to become pregnant, and more likely to experience domestic violence, abuse and exploitation. • A mother under the age of 18 is more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth than a woman in her 20s; her infant’s risk of dying in its first year of life is 60 per cent greater; and her surviving infant is more likely to suffer from low birth weight, under nutrition and late physical and cognitive development. • Child marriage often results in separation from family and friends and lack of freedom to participate in community activities, which can all have major consequences on girls’ mental and physical well-being.

3 Child marriage is a reality for boys and girls, although girls are disproportionately more affected.

1 UNICEF’s 2014 report, Ending Child Marriage, showed the following: • Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. • More than 1 in 3 – or some 250 million – were married before 15.

The data also shows that while global • Doubling the rate of decline would prevalence has decreased slightly over bring the number of women married the past three decades, progress needs as children down to 570 million by to be scaled up dramatically to mitigate 2030 and 450 million by 2050. an ongoing and widespread deprivation of child rights. Also, while the median This report focuses on a single region age at first marriage may be gradually in Kenya, exploring the breadth of local increasing, this has been limited primarily factors that contribute to the perpetuation among girls in higher income families of child marriage in order to support more around the world. More intensive, effective ways of addressing it. sustained action is needed to prevent hundreds of millions more girls suffering profound and permanent harm: • If rates of decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population growth means the number of women married as children (more than 700 million) will remain flat through 2050.

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Prevalence of Child Marriage in Turkana 2 – Wide and Unseen

Early, child and forced marriage is It cuts across society. It’s marriage or cohabitation with a child – deeply rooted even among the defined as illegal ‘defilement’ by Kenyan intellectuals. They can’t speak law4. In Kenya’s Turkana County, as out against it because people will point in other countries, it is proscribed by at them and ask when they married their culture, expressed in ritual, and defined own wife, or their daughter, or at what by payment of bride wealth and formal age their brother married. Even the chiefs agreement between two families. are practising this.” [Official, Department of Gender and Social Development] Child marriage is a critical social issue in Turkana. Many teachers, health workers, politicians, administrators and members A recent MICS survey5 shows that 32per of civil society are acutely aware of it and cent of Turkana women aged between 20 regularly see it: indirectly in school drop- and 49 were married before 18; 14 per out rates and health facility registers; cent of 15-19 years olds are married; and more directly in encounters with brightly almost 10 per cent of girls were married beaded girl brides in roadside wedding before the age of 15. The same survey parties. reveals that 102 in every 1000 women in Turkana had given birth by age 19. Child marriage cuts across social While this data is compelling, statistics boundaries in Turkana—from the rich and on child marriage rates are often viewed powerful attached to tradition, to the as under-estimates. poor and desperate looking to escape poverty. Despite its prohibition in Kenyan First, low awareness of the law certainly law and the prevailing international view leads to its under-reporting—including by that it constitutes a form of archaic child authority figures, such as administrative abuse, it reaches right into the elites: chiefs, who might be held legally accountable or complicit if the number of cases were known.

4 In the Children’s Act of 2001 this is defined in Part 11 Section 23 on parental responsibility, and in a later section on child care and protection; in the Marriage Act of 2014, Section 87 prohibits marriage to a person under 18 years. 5 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) – government-implemented survey supported by UNICEF. In review for publication.

3 Second, means of reporting are not by medical professionals is considered available to the whole population, less effective than the squatting position. especially in remote rural parts of Turkana. Finally, traditional Turkana families may Traditional formal marriages are not not know their daughter’s age in years accounted for in marriage registers. Nor, (or view age in calendar years at all). for that matter, are accurate records kept They consider her fit to marry based on of births and deaths. Some indicators physical and emotional maturity. As a can be gleaned from health facility mother in Turkana North explains, records on the age of the mother and her marital status, but not all mothers deliver in a health facility. Indeed, in traditional We can see when a girl communities, where child marriage becomes an adult, and when occurs most commonly, women are she is mature, and when she is culturally averse to delivering in a health ready to marry. A mother doesn’t even facility because it suggests weakness know how old her daughter is in number and the supine birthing position favoured of years.”

4 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Traditional Marriage 3 – Strengthening Wealth and Society

Traditional marriage in Turkana has high When you are paying bride economic and sociocultural value. Bride wealth you are not just paying wealth is significant, ranging from a few between the parents of those goats or sheep to hundreds of them, plus who are marrying, you are making dozens of larger animals including cattle, payments between both clans. And camels and donkeys. Supported often when animals are paid, no matter how by wider kin or clan, these marriage few, they will reproduce – so they are payments are considered higher than valuable assets.” [Turkana woman, those given by most traditional/pastoralist Lodwar] groups in Kenya and other contexts6. Female relatives also benefit: in-laws and The assets are transformative for many co-wives (in the polygamous homes of families. Poor can become rich. They are many traditional Turkana7) gain materially not only given to a girl’s father but also and domestically, because a new wife to many other clan members or family shares the burden of herd and home. associates. Brothers and other male relatives are likely to use the animals A ‘traditional’ and ‘formal’ Turkana gained to pay their own bride wealth. marriage is generally initiated by the male The economic gain is inalienable from suitor and his family. If there is agreement social or political ones. The kinship bond by the girl’s father and male relatives, created with another family consolidates negotiations are undertaken until bride a social network that can protect the wealth is agreed, payment completed whole family in difficult times. (either in instalments or all at once) and

6 Turkana bride wealth is referred to in contemporary anthropology as ‘exorbitant’ and ‘inflated’, and equivalent to ‘hundreds’ of livestock (SOURCE: Broch-Due, V., 2000, The Fertility of houses and herds: Producing kinship & gender amongst Turkana Pastoralists. In Hodgson L. D. ed., Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa: gender, culture & the myth of the patriarchal pastoralist, James Currey Publ.) 7 2014 MICS data [under review for publication] found that 30 per cent of Turkana women aged 15-49 were in polygynous unions.

5 a bull slaughtered to signify the marriage This was echoed by another professional has formally begun. Much importance is Turkana woman whose career has attached to this marriage transaction and involved advocating for education. ritual. Many described how vital it is for Despite her own success and recognized the ongoing respectability and identity professional and political role, she feels of families and clans, for example this she lacks the status needed to be able to community representative from Turkana speak publicly in front of people – both Central: men and women – and be respected:

If bride wealth has not been When bride wealth is paid, a paid, commitment to the woman has some social status. marriage by the man is not This is the same for any there, nor respect. The man does not Turkana girl, no matter how educated respect the woman, and the woman she is. I have talked to communities does not respect the man, until bride about education and been told off. wealth has been paid” They have confronted me, ‘You, who are talking to me – is your bride wealth paid?’” 3a. The prestige of traditional

marriage The prestige attached to marriage applies The status of a traditionally married to girls too. Describing the teenage, woman – one whose marriage was married mothers who attend her clinic’s arranged and ritualized as above – has ante-natal care services, a non-local enduring social value in Turkana. Even in nurse in rural Turkana spoke of their towns, and among educated persons, a unexpected confidence: “‘I am married, woman will commonly be seen as having the bride wealth has been paid, I’m a lower status if she has not had bride wife!’ is what they’re thinking”. wealth payments made to her family. Even ‘modern’ educated Turkana women That status extends to a woman’s in towns describe the humiliation and loss children. By contrast, children born to of social status due to non-payment of informal marriages have a lower status their bride wealth. Charity, an impressive in the eyes of the community and their woman in regular employment in Lodwar father’s family. They are ‘children of the (see case study 3), spoke of this as an field’ [ikoku akeor] rather than ‘children inescapable stigma: of the home’ [ikoku awi]. We heard from several informants how compared to ‘formal children’ who belong to their People are always aware of father, these children have a lower which women have had bride position in the family and community – wealth paid for them, even in and they can even suffer less attention, towns. It doesn’t matter how educated and more demands to do work. you are – if you are not traditionally married you have lower status and you will not be listened to. I need to have my bride wealth paid so that I can have a voice”

6 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

The enduring prestige of marriage If we are to ‘sell’ education to across all contexts of Turkana means the traditional pastoralist—who that campaigns focused on the illegality, is still three quarters of the negative impacts and ‘backwardness’ of Turkana population—we need to assure child marriage cannot hope to engage them that bride wealth can still apply communities, or girls and women to educated girls. That’s how we can themselves, without considering the convince parents to send their children respectability of traditional marital status to school, by showing role models for many. Education and professionalism who are educated, employed, whose increasingly offer an alternative status husbands paid formal bride wealth, for many women. But even educated, and who supported their parents with employed women feel they suffer a lack of food from town when the animals died respect from not being formally married. in drought. Men who have paid bride It remains an important prerequisite for wealth for educated women must also leadership. be held as role models, for fulfilling the traditional obligations of a man in Development in Turkana is not well today’s society.” reconciled with culture and its norms. Locally-suited services are much needed, starting with adapted education that Whether this is actually feasible is likely brings communities and schools closer. to remain a mostly Turkana debate. The Indeed, communities across Turkana educated woman in favour of this has are discussing how traditional marriage, not yet convinced her own husband to with bride wealth, might also be an follow the logic of her argument. As a option for the rising numbers of schooled town-based professional, he considers women and girls—who would typically himself exempt from paying bride wealth be exempt from a traditional, formal and feels he has the backing of local marriage. A Turkana education advocate, churches and development associations who herself feels rejected because of who prefer instead to promote complete unpaid bride wealth, argues that this is a abolition of bride wealth payments. way for education to be fitted to culture. She suggests that bride wealth should be paid for educated girls, whether in livestock or other assets (including cash):

7 Vulnerability and Protection 4 – Drivers of Child Marriage Today

4a. Child marriage ensured. Brothers and male relatives are and vulnerability responsible, with heavy punishments and a fixed fine [ekichul] imposed on anyone This research began with the who violates an unmarried girl: generalization of child marriage as a persistent ‘negative cultural practice’ needing to be brought in line with the There are punitive measures if modern world. Instead, it found that a boy sleeps with an unmarried for many families it is a hard economic girl—he will be seriously choice and a very contemporary coping beaten! If somebody sleeps with an strategy. Stories and evidence of girls unmarried girl and she gets pregnant forced to marry as children, girls who there is what is called ekichul, a kind ran away, parents behind child marriage, of compensation fee for what has been or actors against it revealed a complex lost—the virginity of that girl. Ekichul portrait of a society in transition. is always 31 animals—30 goats and one big animal—and a boy’s family has First, the welfare and security of daughters to pay that. If the girl is not booked is of paramount concern to parents, [for marriage] they may decide to start families and communities. The research paying bride wealth for the boy to marry showed that most families place a high the girl. Even if they do, they will still value on the protection and welfare of have to pay the ekichul. They have their daughters, want them to find good to do things properly.” [Community husbands and homes and to prosper representative, Turkana South] through their marriages. Many families do wait until a good husband is found, and until they feel their daughter is ‘mature’— At the same time, catastrophe or poverty not judged by any standard moment, but may force a family to marry a daughter by when she shows physical as well as at an early age. In those circumstances, mental and behavioural maturity. Many bride wealth acts as a safety net in a parents and families emphasized how region that offers little human, social carefully girls are looked after until this and livelihood security, and a relative point, and their protection (or purity) absence of (non-local) social welfare or

8 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

protection. For example, a family that Girls vulnerable to marriage at a very loses its entire herd to a raid8 may marry young age, then, tend to be victims of off an under-age daughter to support wider development or security failures. the rest of the family, as might a family Conflict mapping could help show when whose unvaccinated cattle die of disease, the risks are particularly acute. For or one whose uninsured herd dies during example, certain raids on the Turkana drought. A male elder at a traditional eluk by the Merille (or Dassanech) across toliasi gathering near Lodwar explains the border in occur at times of this: the year coinciding with Merille male initiation (a ritual requiring large numbers Because of the changing of cattle). Similarly, the raiding patterns weather patterns, and drought, of Pokot / Karamojong / Toposa / Jie / other livestock are limited and many traditionally hostile neighbouring groups, people have few left; if a family has are determined by both seasonal (food a girl it is a chance to replenish that security) and ritual calendars. Beyond livestock. If the girl is younger, even conflict and food insecurity, there may be ten years, a family might give her in other patterns of household vulnerability marriage if they need the livestock.” whose mapping could inform preventive approaches to reducing the incidence of child marriage. Unaccompanied or isolated girls – including orphans or victims of conflict By contrast, among well-off families under – may also be at risk of child marriage, little or no economic/security pressure, accepted and then ‘married off’ at a the arranged marriage of a daughter young age for the acquisition of animals may happen later, possibly much later. in bride wealth. This was explained by One informant – a professional Turkana an official in Turkana’s Department of woman now based in Nairobi and engaged Gender and Social Development: in politics – even saw this as a problem, if a girl from a well-off family becomes frustrated by the lack of pressure for her Girls who are orphaned or to marry: separated from their families will often be married early. Someone will take care of such a girl, Girls from wealthy families may take her into the family, and then marry be overgrown, 25 and above, her off – perhaps when very young – to before being married. Their get animals.” marriage is for their parents to re-stock, but if a father has thousands of goats and hundreds of camels then why would he rush to marry off his daughter?”

8 Raiding in this context refers to theft of livestock from a pastoralist household or group; for men to acquire livestock as bride wealth and thus marry, or out of revenge, or for commercial gain (cattle raiding in Kenya’s ASALs is increasingly linked to markets).

9 At the same time, the practice of marrying On a more individual basis, child marriage girls under-age cannot always be may happen more frequently where there ascribed to vulnerability and may persist is pressure from a suitor (who may have as a cultural norm. Child marriage might betrothed a girl at a young age), or even be more of a threat for girls in families pressure from a girl herself to set up a under economic or other pressures, but marital home (or marry a man she has girls from better-off families may also chosen). be married ‘under-age’ by both legal and local definitions. This is particularly true in parts of Turkana far from schools, towns, and outside laws, places often marked both by large herds, insecurity, and strong attachment to traditional culture.

In summary, traditional, formal child marriages are more likely to happen in: • Traditional contexts, among girls who have not been to school, but were instead chosen by their parents to herd animals and support domestic tasks. • Nomadic or semi-nomadic families that live further from towns and roads • Pastoralist families under economic pressure—who see their daughter as an opportunity to re-stock for the sake of the other children and the family at large • Situations where there is pressure to marry from a suitor or a girl herself • ‘Conventionally vulnerable’ groups—including orphans or separated children who can be sexually as well as economically exploited, i.e. used to elicit bride wealth.

10 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

4b. Child marriage viewed as Girls who go to school will ‘protection’ from schools go to towns, the iron sheet roofs attract them, and then Another and less anticipated driver of they return home pregnant. Their father child marriage is that some parents view might try to follow up for ekichul – it as a means of protecting their daughters maybe he’ll get a little compensation, from the risks posed by exposure to like just five goats, but he’ll have to schools and towns. Many informants look after that girl and the baby.” spoke of the education system’s inability [Community representative, Nayu’u] to protect girls from sexual abuse and early pregnancies. As a rural mother “It is a waste because we bring them leading a traditional pastoralist life with up, we feed them and care for them her children explained: and then they just go away. I have three daughters who’ve all gone to town, and I’ve never got anything back from Today some parents fear their them.” [Old man, Nayu’u] daughter will go and choose for herself a man in town, “In the old days a girl might go to and marrying a town man is often not school and then come back to us; today good for the girl or the family.” [Mother, she is more likely to just choose her Turkana North] own husband, and you find out later. Or she comes home and tells you she married, and maybe she gives you fifty Others explained how parents fear their bob…” [Old man, Nayu’u] daughters going to town for school but ending up in bar work and even In these and other comments, rising prostitution. “Parents would rather conservatism among parents was linked marry their daughters off than risk them not only to the perceived failure of the dropping out in town”, and “they prefer education system to protect girls, but an early marriage, with payment of also to more general shortcomings of animals, because at the end of the day accessible education in Turkana. For they feel their child has some security”, example, the scarcity of schools for were the views of two Turkana women rural populations, the inappropriateness working in Lodwar. (especially for younger children) of The economic effects of this vulnerability boarding schools that separate children were plainly felt in the number of girls from their families and culture, and of and their babies returning to their families course the many associated costs even without bride wealth. at primary level (from uniforms and exam fees to soap and sanitary towels).

11 But informants also emphasized Today a girl who has gone shortcomings in the effectiveness of to school does not enjoy the education, many of them speaking same attachment to the family of the first generation of children for as a girl who has had the traditional whom the promised dividends of school upbringing. They will say that she is the – employment, prosperity, well-being child of the government – ikoku emoit. and more – had not materialized. For I went to school and when I visited many parents, schooling stands in direct my grandmother’s place and my family opposition to the traditional way of life. there, they saw me as a foreigner. Girls With abundant stories of poor grades, my age or older would not even see me dropping out and early pregnancies, girls as a girl, but as a boy. And when you in particular are seen as less likely to are older they say you are an amalaat – succeed in school. available for any man.”

This woman is among many educated We are struggling a lot because girls or women who feel that communities the government is telling us to needed to be more involved in formal bring all our children to school: education, to shape, support and that brings us poverty and problems. safeguard it rather than simply lament the Some go to school and become loss of their children to it. Not only could successful and benefit their parents, this increase schools’ appropriateness, but it is only boys. There is no girl from effectiveness and ability to protect, but by this village who has been successful repairing social cohesion it might reduce from school. When girls go to school the chances of school-going girls falling they come back pregnant and with into informal marriages and pregnancies babies, and that is a burden.” [Old man, out of a sense of abandonment. She Nayu’u] went on to plead not only for parents to Parents of schooled children tend to see ‘take up their role’ when it comes to the themselves as obliged to hand over their schooling of their children, but also for children to the government9, and greet governments to do the same in providing school failings with passivity. Almost the necessary diversity of appropriate all girls who dropped out of school and accessible school solutions: after falling pregnant spoke of being unguided at home both before and after. We need to educate parents Schooled children are often shunned on their role, and the when they return home. Girls seem to government on their role, and suffer the worst, feeling outcast and the two will meet. We need to take even reportedly being called prostitutes schools to pastoralists, locally when in their home communities. An educated they are small and then in boarding Turkana woman, who now works as an schools near towns when they are education advocate, remembered vividly older.” her experience:

9 Kenya’s Basic Education Act (No 14 of 2013) promotes free and compulsory primary and secondary education for every child (Sections 28, 30). Parents who fail to take their children to school are committing an offence (Section 30, sub- section 2).

12 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Meanwhile, those who are succeeding Others argue that for vulnerable in school hope they can be role models pastoralists, education will increasingly – both for education and against child be seen as a good option in the context of marriage. This was most clearly felt at deepening economic and food insecurity. a mission-run ‘rescue centre’ for girls Certainly local demand for education has in Northern Turkana, where the girls become more complex—based now on enrolled (and given a complete package realistic cost-benefit analysis and not just of support for their quality education) idealized visions about its transformative felt sure their own success would drive power—but underpinning this is a firm up the rural enrolment rates of girls, sense of the inevitability of schooling. and at the same time work against child For example, a pastoralist mother and marriage. Yet such voices have to be grandmother in Turkana North took the heard with caution, because the chances long view of schooling for her family, of succeeding in school—understood as explaining that none of her children had going beyond primary level to secondary been to school because they were needed or higher, or concretely raising one’s to care for the family herds. Nonetheless, chances of future economic and social she knew that her grandchildren would prosperity—are slim for many students in likely be the first of the family to attend. Turkana.

13 Informal and Urban 5 Child Marriage

5a. Rising informal marriage Informal marriages affect children as well One of the changes brought to Turkana by as their mothers, potentially weakening major droughts and depleted herds is the the parenting, protection and welfare rise of informal marriages, in both urban provided to them. For girls who marry and rural areas. It is widely acknowledged under the age of eighteen, this adds that towns, schools and the erosion of another dimension to their vulnerability. customary authority have encouraged Without the security typically afforded this, but also that poverty and drastic herd by a traditional marriage, they can be losses have reduced traditional marriages easily cast aside. simply because many men cannot afford to pay bride wealth. Or it may be the case 5b. Urban ‘child marriage’, that women choose their own husbands, under-age relationships discarding customary marriage protocol. and pregnancies Informal marriage has implications The research also identified high numbers for the social status and security of of ‘non-traditional’ marriages or unions— women and their children. Rising rates i.e. without a customary ritual bridging of abandonment and divorce, particularly two families, or payment of bride wealth in towns, were cited as an expression of from one to the other—involving under- this: age girls in urban or semi-urban areas. A new research theme emerged when countless respondents described an Today there is a high rate urban version of child marriage that they of divorce because of these saw as equally harrowing and urgent. informal or incomplete The incidence of girls having under- marriages. A man might marry a woman age relationships, pregnancies and then but not complete his bride wealth and dropping out of school was described then go for another woman. Then as having reached almost epidemic he could even move to another! This proportions. The catastrophic effects happens often in towns, where the – limited health, education, social obligations are not so strong, and it and economic prospects – were made leaves women in a very vulnerable vividly clear. A development worker in position.” [Educated woman working in a local women’s group felt she saw it Lodwar] everywhere:

14 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Here in Lodwar you see a girl The prevalence of these urban protection with a baby on every corner, issues was described as wide and and most don’t even know the without borders. A social worker and fathers. It is everywhere! We talk about teacher living in Lodwar told the story having a flock that a hyena just keeps of her own three daughters, all of whom coming and taking from – well that is got pregnant while still in school and the situation with girls here in towns…” are now under her care with their own children. Others linked it to poverty, describing children sent to towns to sell Some described young people as firewood, charcoal and woven goods uncontrollable and linked it to the and becoming vulnerable there to sexual erosion of customary inter-generational abuse, pregnancy and HIV and AIDS. structures and a lack of discipline The perceived crisis in early pregnancies in schools and towns. Two different among girls in urban areas is symptomatic informants—one a young working of wider education, social and development woman, the other a customary elder— failures, compounded by poverty and who had come from relatively traditional rapid, unplanned urbanization. One of the backgrounds and now lived in (or near) simplest examples of this combination, Lodwar explained what they saw had repeated depressingly often, was a changed their children: lack of sanitary towels making a girl economically dependent on a man—as People used to have a lot of explained by a local community worker: wealth but right now people are very poor. People used to In secondary school girls follow culture, it used to be so strong, often drop out because they but nowadays it is not. In towns there are lacking things, even basic are a lot of modern things like videos things like sanitary towels. If a man that distract people…” offers them those things they will go “Children in school are under their own with him. They try their own ways to control, not under the control of their get what they need, and that’s how parents any more. They are in town and they get pregnant and drop out of they have phones, watch videos, and school.” cannot be controlled by their parents.”

15 During the research we sought out People believe children are examples of these young urban God-given and nobody should mothers, and found they did not match limit them. They also see their stereotype: most were shy and children as wealth, and feel honoured unassuming, giving the impression they when they have many.” were mindful of the impact of what they had done while also carried along by It is worth recalling that church-based fate and a lack of better options. Many groups provide a significant proportion described the vulnerability that had of health services in Turkana, including prompted them—for example Cynthia reproductive health, which in Catholic (Case Study 5). contexts is limited to timing based on forms of menstrual calendars, to avoid 5c. Access to family planning conception. Hearing over and over how under-age At community level, the ‘zero uptake’ was relationships lead almost inevitably clear. A woman living near to under-age pregnancies raised the who had just lamented the number of issue of family planning and access to local early pregnancies, including those contraception. This topic was quickly of her own daughters, felt that family dismissed in a number of interviews. planning was irrelevant, when asked how “I don’t think it’s morally upright, for this could address the problem: a school-going child,” explained a female staff member in a community development organization whose own We have never talked about three children had given birth while that [family planning] with our still in school. A young Nairobi lawyer children. That doesn’t happen dealing with defilement cases thought here. And we don’t want to bring that all the married young girls she had seen in because we think it could encourage had “absolutely no idea” about sexual young people to have sex more.” education, or even HIV, and said “If you mention protection they’ll say, ‘Oh that’s And a nineteen-year old mother in the for prostitutes!’” same area explained how she had chosen Among some, family planning was felt not to use family planning while in a to be an access issue, but more typically relationship and still in school, despite people repeated this moral objection, or having access to it: spoke of cultural and religious barriers to accessing family planning options. A I got pregnant before finishing nurse in northern Turkana who described my second repeat of Standard herself as ‘upset’ and ‘disappointed’ 8. I didn’t plan this pregnancy, to see so many young girls coming to it happened by accident when I was her clinic pregnant, explained to us the with my boyfriend. We never used cultural reason why childbearing at any family planning. I knew those options age was not prevented through family were there but I didn’t want to use planning: them. My boyfriend didn’t want to use family planning either.”

16 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

In summary, non-traditional, non-formal child marriage occurs most commonly in: • Towns, especially among schooled youth, or youth who have dropped out of school. Customary ways of life and systems of protection tend to be more weak in towns where inter-generational structures have broken down and different ethnicities are mixed. • Impoverished communities where traditional ways of life have broken down and economic security is weak. Repeatedly the research heard how children are less willing to listen to parents who are poor, and how those parents have less hold over their children. This is a general rule but also culturally-specific: if a man has not completed the bride wealth for his wife, his children do not ‘belong’ to him—and one extension of this is that he has less right to discipline them, and they have less responsibility to listen to him. • Communities where schooling is poor or inaccessible: dropping out and ‘idling’ in towns, or seeking financial support (for education and other costs) through relationships with men, were both commonly cited as routes to teenage pregnancy for unmarried girls.

17 6 The Role of Law

Under Kenyan law, child marriage When we came here to is illegal; it is considered a form of implement the Sexual Offences defilement (see Box 1, below). In urban Act we had completely under- and semi-urban areas the law serves as a estimated the low levels of awareness potential deterrent. But Turkana is large, of the law against defilement, or child and its populations mobile. In non-urban marriage. Now we think we might be areas, child marriage persists: starting at the wrong end, that we should be looking more at prevention through raising awareness.” There are areas on the borders and in the insecure areas of the country, like on livestock Yet the law does have ‘teeth’ when migratory routes, where child marriage applied. Examples of harshly punished is still widely practised. Those people ‘defilers’ make a clear difference to have their own law.” [Elder, Lodwar] community perceptions—the famous “Nobody will follow up on a person who case of ‘Bamba 20’, an assistant chief is marrying an under 18-year-old girl. jailed for 20 years for marrying a minor, It’s cultural, and widely accepted, so was repeatedly raised. At the same time no one will report it.” [Nurse, Northern it was widely stated that many chiefs and Turkana] other influence-leaders are either directly involved, complicit, or indifferent. Legal actors in Turkana acknowledge this is It will take considerable time and slowing their ‘campaign’ to bring an end consistent awareness-raising before the to child marriage. As more community- law can reach many rural places or families based paralegals are trained to carry who are off-roads or on migratory routes. out awareness campaigns, and as these A dedicated child rights legal agency spread and take hold, it is hoped that that recently began work in Turkana, has the legal deterrent to child marriage may encountered levels of ignorance of the grow. law that took them quite by surprise—as explained by a young female lawyer from Nairobi who founded the Lodwar office:

18 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Box 1. Laws against Child Marriage

Kenya Sexual Offences Act, No.3, 2006. Section 8, Defilement:

(1) A person who commits an act which causes penetration with a child is guilty of an offence termed defilement. (2) A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child aged eleven years or less shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life. (3) A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of twelve and fifteen years is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than twenty years. (4) A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of sixteen and eighteen years is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years.

Kenya Marriage Act, 2014. Sections 4 and 87:

Section 4 states that both parties must be over 18 to marry; Section 87 prohibits marriage to a person under 18 years (liable to jail for max 5 years or fine max 1 million shillings or to both).

Kenya Children’s Act, 2008. Sections 14 and 15:

Sections 14 and 15 describe protection of children from harmful cultural rites and sexual exploitation.

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1990. Article 21, Protection against Harmful Social and Cultural Practices, Sub-Section 2:

Child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years and make registration of all marriages in an official registry compulsory.

19 Costs of Child 7 Marriage

A girl who is married early is denied those beads – even though I was only multiple rights, especially those related ten – because I wanted to study. I to education and sexual and reproductive didn’t want to be married! I wanted to choice. It also affects her health, study! I also thought that if I studied economic productivity, and self-esteem. I could help my family.” [Girl living at • A girl’s right to education is often church refuge centre, north Turkana] denied by child marriage. The loss “I knew I had left a very important of the right to education tends to be part of my life when I left school [to the violation felt most keenly by girls be married], and I’ve been disturbed themselves—particularly those whose ever since. There’s something lost in education was interrupted. Many me because I wasn’t able to finish suffer lifelong regret. Child marriage my education.” [A woman in Lodwar also correlates directly with reduced who was removed from school for a future economic security. traditional life and marriage]

We still split our children into • Girls married early are psychologically those for school and those for ill-prepared, denied a childhood home. When we divide them and suffer sexual violation (legally we might dedicate the first for herding, ‘defilement’). The domestic demands the second for school, the third for placed on a young wife—especially herding, the fourth for school – and so in polygamous households with on. With girls you might decide on less hierarchies of wives and their going to school. It is partly that you fear children—can also be extreme. a girl dropping out of school, but also Parents on the whole are aware that an because you know you can get a bride immature daughter risks being sexually- wealth from her if you keep her at home appropriated and domestically-exploited and marry her traditionally.” [Elder, or even abused in the home of a husband Ferguson’s Gulf] and his family. This conforms with data “Originally I was in Lodwar, in primary from beyond Turkana: in Kenya, 36 per school. Then my mother decided to cent of women married before age 18 send me to the rural area and there believe that a man is sometimes justified my father put me in beads [signifying in beating his wife, compared to 20 per availability for marriage]. But I removed cent of married women (UNICEF 2005).

20 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

When a marriage occurs earlier than a girl and her family would wish – either under pressure from the groom’s family or because the bride’s family face economic stress – provisions are often made for the welfare of the girl, such as assurances of care from her mother-in-law, or promises that the marriage will not be consummated until the girl is mature. In reality, however, most informants felt that a girl married early would be exposed to risk and abuse regardless of such pre-marital assurances. • Sexual and reproductive health typically suffers through child marriage. Underage girls who marry experience a younger sexual debut, are likely to have (and lose) more children, and will have weaker control over their fertility (family planning) and fertility-related outcomes. Giving birth when physically immature can have serious health consequences, including obstetric fistula, increased risk of HIV/STIs, and increased risks of both infant and maternal mortality. All of this is exacerbated by less access to health care. These consequences were quantified in a briefing paper for this research (Hatakeyama, 2013):

» Maternal health: Childbirth complications are the leading cause of death for girls age 15 - 19 in developing countries. Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s (ICRW 2007). Girls who bear children before their bodies are fully developed are at greater risk of obstetric fistula, a debilitating condition often caused by prolonged or obstructed labour (Population Council 2010). » Infant health: Infants born to young mothers are more likely to suffer low birth weight, premature birth, and death (PRB 2011). If a mother is under 18, her baby’s chance of dying in the first year of life is 60: greater than that of a baby born to a mother over 18 (Raj 2010). » HIV and AIDS: Child marriage increases girls’ risks of HIV and AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). A study in Kenya and Zambia found that of girls aged 15-19 who are sexually-active, being married increased their chances of having HIV by over 75 per cent (Clark 2004). Existing research suggests that married girls may be more vulnerable to HIV because they are less able to change their sexual behaviour in response to HIV knowledge/risk (ICRW 2007). » Reproductive health and rights: Girls married before 18 experience earlier sexual debut, give birth to more children and lose more children (Walker 2012). A multi-country study in South Asia suggests that child marriage adds a layer of vulnerability to women that leads to poor fertility control and fertility-related outcomes, and low maternal health care use (Godha 2013). » Mental health and suicide: Research from Africa and Asia finds girls married as minors are at increased risk of depression and suicide, often linked to higher gender-based violence (Raj 2010).

21 Some informants spoke of the difficulties Where child marriage denies a girl the faced by pregnant girls married under- right to attend formal school it reduces age. For example, they are at risk of her literacy and numeracy, formal skills obstructed labour and (where possible) development and job prospects outside caesarean sections caused by narrow the traditional economy – and often also hips not ready for childbirth. Rural health her grasp of vital life skills related to workers spoke of their helplessness when health, nutrition, sanitation. Furthermore, it comes to assisting delivery of mothers a non-schooled girl who sees the benefits who are not physically mature. A nurse of education in others often suffers in rural northern Turkana estimated that lower psychosocial competence and a quarter of all the women she sees in a confidence. typical ante-natal class would be under • Child marriage perpetuates the 18, and spoke of the dangers they must lower status of women, hindering face during delivery. At the same time the development of a community as she told how few local women and girls a whole. At community level, child actually attend her facility for delivery, marriage reduces the collective social given their preference for home deliveries status of women, and promotes gender (but also the under-resourcing of rural inequity. It not only under-utilizes the health facilities): economic potential of women but can also propagate inter-generational There are few actual hospital cycles of poverty. A grave violation of deliveries – we are trying but the rights of children, child marriage is still the majority are home also an issue for entire communities, deliveries done out there, where a girl societies, and nations. relies on her mother-in-law and her other relatives. Very few underage mothers come to the facility for delivery. We do know that delivery is very difficult for young mothers. Of those that come here, some come with fistulas, and a lot of other complications.” [Nurse, northern Turkana]

22 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Challenge 8 and Resistance

Overall, it is very difficult for most under- and continue practising it according to age girls in traditional, rural contexts their own culture and law. Promoting to resist the decision of their parents/ the Sexual Offences Act against cases relatives to marry them. Key reasons for of child marriage in traditional rural this include: areas is, as the research heard, a risky • There is enormous social and thing to do: economic pressure behind a marriage, which unites two families and their We rescued a girl from child clans. Many relatives on both sides marriage and the parents stand to gain enormously from it. The were taken to court, but the economic implications of resisting a government Children’s Officer was planned marriage, especially for an threatened by the family and so he under-age girl, are daunting. didn’t pursue the case. Without that • The arranged marriage of girls (and person’s commitment, because he had young women) is a well-established been threatened, the case could not go social norm with considerable far.” [Female Chief, Turkana] momentum. In traditional contexts girls themselves may be expecting • Many girls who do or might refuse it, even looking forward to it, and in their marriage fear being beaten or considering it ‘normal’ would not ‘cursed’—and their mothers too, if they expect to be rescued from it. are complicit. For young, vulnerable • The practice of child marriage is often girls, these fears are very real barriers normalized among figures of influence to resisting marriage plans: and authority such as administrative chiefs. “At my home there are other • The law against child marriage may girls who were married off at exist but it has not reached many the age my father wanted me rural places or families and will take to marry. No one else refused like me. considerable time to do so. There It is difficult to refuse, even if you are is also resistance to the law. Even desperate to go to school like I was. in places where it has reached, the Your father and your parents will not normalization and perceived benefits accept your refusal, and they may beat of child marriage in society means you. Most girls fear their parents.” [Girl there are many who will protect, hide in church rescue centre, Lodwar]

23 • Most girls who dare to go against Girls themselves rarely report marriage plans made for them child marriages. It might be would have nowhere and no-one because levels of awareness to turn to. A girl who runs away to are so low. Or, girls are aware that they avoid her marriage may not be able shouldn’t be married so young but they to reconcile with her family. Many really don’t know what to do or where are forced to live in the care of the to go. And in fact when such cases are church or of sympathetic relatives brought to us, agencies are not always while they pursue an education, and sure whose responsibility it is.” [Lawyer, reconciliation with a father is most The Cradle] difficult since he is likely to have lost substantially through the missed bride • In many instances a girl may be wealth and dented social honour. Girls returned to the community, family and who ran away from their marriage father she fled from—this deters many spoke of being ostracized, and of how from seeking outside help: choosing school meant leaving not just a marriage but a home and family (see Case Study 4) An elder interviewed If a child marriage legal case during the research explained, from is raised, a girl is likely to a father’s perspective, why cases of be taken back to the same girls refusing their marriage plans are community while it proceeds, and there so rare: she would come under a lot of influence from her family – she usually changes There are girls who run away or retracts her complaint in that case.” from child marriage. But in [Child Protection Officer, UNICEF] a rural set-up a girl won’t run away back to her father, because Many of these reasons behind the near- she’ll fear the repercussions. She’ll run impossibility of girls resisting child to a sympathetic relative. It’s difficult marriage hinge on the gap between because many have received bride Turkana customs and way of life, and the wealth for her marriage. There are very efforts of outsiders to adjust and change few of these cases in the rural areas it. This does not relate just to child because people are not aware of the marriage campaigns, but to development law, and even if the girl refuses she and outsider interventions much more cannot really run to anyone.” [Elder at generally. Many have referenced this Eluk Toliasi gathering, Lodwar] by pointing out that the Turkana term emoit means both outsider and enemy • Options for resisting child marriage and makes no distinction between the are not simple, or clear. This is true two. Legal efforts to stop child marriage for girls themselves, and also for were interpreted by communities – and agencies either navigating a preventive even affected girls themselves – as anti- approach to child marriage or finding cultural. Again, the legal agency working themselves on the receiving end of to implement the Sexual Offences Act in ‘runaways.’ Turkana felt this most keenly:

24 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

“Children are under pressure If a girl is married and realizes not to co-operate with the that the set-up of that home law; they might testify that is not as she wants, or she is they didn’t marry or that they never feeling abused there, she can decide to had sexual relations with a man. I think run away. She’ll take off her hide apron, they feel that we are the people on her marriage apron, and put it in a tree the wrong side, that the authorities on her way to her parents’ house. Then are against their family who are doing her husband’s family will follow that things in the proper way. They feel like trail and come and talk with her father. we are fighting their culture.” [Lawyer, A meeting will be held between both The Cradle] sides to try to sort out the problem. If the girl is adamant and the marriage has There are customary, local means to to end, then all the people in her family challenge a child marriage that are who received bride wealth will have to theoretically open to a girl herself. give those animals back.” Working with available options to give girls more agency in their lives must include accommodating such systems. This is explained by a Turkana elder, speaking at a gathering of male elders near Lodwar:

25 9 Recommendations

Addressing child marriage in Turkana Understanding the economic benefits of requires more than a legal solution and child marriage is critical to addressing it requires more than simply remedial it. Prior to devolution, the Kenyan efforts. This research has shown that the government and its international partners phenomenon can only be addressed by (including UNICEF) had largely failed considering the underlying issues driving to deliver quality education, effective it, including vulnerability. It has also economic safety nets or social welfare shown that understanding of the issue systems, or adequate job opportunities must be broadened beyond simply seeing and development to the people of Turkana. it as a ‘negative cultural practice’. On most development indicators, Turkana ranks in the lowest percentile in Kenya. Solutions must be found to assimilate the Rural families are highly vulnerable to traditional beliefs and wedding practices drought and conflict, with limited formal of the people of Turkana with the human safety nets. Against this backdrop, girls rights of girls. Traditional marriage is are clearly an economic asset for the not mutually exclusive to the rights of dowries they attract, or a solution for girls. There are many factors driving the families whose livestock has been raided practice, but the perceived protection of or died in drought. girls is an important factor fuelling the continuation of child marriage in Turkana. The evidence is, of course, mixed. As explained by certain informants and case Many Turkana families cannot trust studies here, there are families and girls that state-sponsored education will be who have challenged traditional marriage good for their daughters. They have practices and become successful little reason to believe their girls will be economic and political role models within successful at school, and it is difficult their society. However, there appear to for them to protect them there. In the be more girls who have gone to school event a daughter does complete school but have failed to learn or achieve successfully, without succumbing to meaningful employment, entered into negative urban pressures or an early informal relationships or been abused pregnancy, there is no guarantee this will by men and became pregnant without give her access to a secure livelihood. economic means or familial support. Overall, nothing suggests to them that Frequently, these girls have returned an educated girl will be more prosperous to the family in shame and become a than one married traditionally—at any burden on their already meagre resources age—in exchange for bride wealth and a without prospects of future marriage in secure role in society.

26 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

the traditional sense. Others carve out widely accepted as an appropriate and a living in the informal sector in Lodwar important process for men and women to or other major centres. They have no undertake in order to maintain customary safety net, they are perceived to have ties and social relations between families. no future, and are considered lost to the It is a respected tradition. Traditional community because they have chosen marriage in Turkana must be decoupled an ‘immoral’ life beyond the traditional from child marriage. In the long-term, bonds of community. Turkana families can and will evolve their traditional rights of passage including For many girls in Turkana, the choice is marriage and child rearing, but in the harsh. They can accept the marriage meantime steps must be taken to ensure arranged for them by their families, or that no child is forced into marital union. reject the family and hope to receive sufficient guidance and support from the institutions of the state, civil society 2. Rapidly strengthen civil registration and/or the church to achieve their own systems empowerment. The sad reality is that Registering marriages as well as births— girls may choose a life where their to be able to identify accurate ages of family (father, then husband) will make girls and boys—will improve data on the all critical decisions on her behalf—such prevalence of child marriage and the legal as marriage, education, work and child enforcement of the Sexual Offences Act rearing—rather than risk isolation in a against it. This will reinforce efforts to life without the love and support of their ensure that children are not married, families or communities. These girls are forced into sexual intercourse or child- described in Turkana as ‘ikoku emoit’— bearing before the age of 18. children of the government; and they are ‘amalaat’—available for any man. 3. Improve the quality and relevance of the education systems in Turkana, and In light of this, recommendations for improve the protection of girls in this addressing child marriage can be divided system into six key areas: a) Quality & Relevance – girls who choose (or are chosen) to go to school 1. Distinguish traditional marriage from must have every opportunity to be unlawful child marriage successful there, and afterwards. There Traditional marriage in Turkana can, must be improvements in funding, and often does, include the consent of teaching, materials, infrastructure and the woman and is a process supported vocational support. Successful models by husband, wife and both families from other regions of Kenya, such as the involved. It is a celebration and union WISER school in Muhuru Bay10 or the between two people and two families Northern Kenya Education Trust for girls that does not imply the negation of in the ASALs, may serve as examples for anyone’s rights. Traditional marriage is reflection and adoption in Turkana.

10 Women’s Institute of Secondary Education and Research (WISER): http://www.wisergirls.org/about-wiser/.

27 b) Protection – a common perception is 5. Strengthen women’s leadership and that girls are not safe in schools. They are empowerment programmes in Turkana preyed upon by teachers, boys and other The continued engagement of women figures. Communities are currently not in political, civil and economic spheres involved in ensuring the welfare of girls in will serve to reinforce alternative life schools and play no role in ensuring that choices for Turkana girls. Their growing schools are safe spaces. There must be influence will strengthen belief amongst an expansion of the child-friendly school girls and the community at large that it model11 to make certain that schools is possible for women to live respectable in Turkana are not exposing girls to and important public lives that serve danger—including by engaging boys and the family and community equally. This men directly in this issue. Parents must must be strengthened by community be involved in safeguarding the integrity dialogue—that includes men and boys— of the school grounds and immediately to address the role of women and girls. alerted to improper behaviour of staff Their rights and protection, as well as and students. empowerment and opportunities, must c) Community engagement – the be an issue for the community as a whole. education system in Turkana must establish stronger links with Turkana 6. Establish a Child Protection Centre society and culture. Schools must be for integrated support to vulnerable or a natural link between Turkana and the married girls Kenyan state, international cultures and Girls who run away from marriage, drop beyond. Schools must not divide students out of school, become pregnant, work from their culture, but strengthen their or migrate in search of opportunity sense of belonging to and respect for it. often have little or no access to rescue, protection, family planning or support 4. Improve safety nets and protection for services. A model adopted by the rural livelihoods in Turkana Government of Kenya, the Child Protection The national and Turkana County Centre, would offer integrated prevention governments, agencies, private investors and response services such as refuge and civil society need to identify and and legal aid, psychosocial support, deliver effective economic safety nets for recreation and referral to other services livestock (or livelihood) rehabilitation. The including health care. It would link with government should engage in dialogue support for life skills and education, and with various stakeholders to identify would limit the vulnerability of girls in innovative means of insuring livestock urban areas to further harm and negative and safeguarding against child marriage coping strategies such as prostitution following economic shocks. and crime. Centres are non-residential,

11 Child-Friendly Schools are defined by UNICEF as “inclusive, healthy and protective for all children, effective with children, and involved with families and communities - and children” (Shaeffer, 1999) – more information exists online at http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index_7260.html.

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but are linked to local safe havens/rescue homes if available for acute cases. There is currently no Child Protection Centre in Turkana.

29 10 Conclusion

This research was undertaken to gather are the bedrock of this report. While ideas to be developed alongside the newly the research was based on strong devolved Turkana County Government, relationships already in existence, it and its partners, in order to address child also built new ones by sharing time and marriage in ways that are preventive and conversations with people. Maintaining curative, as well as culturally-appropriate meaningful community engagement, and and effective. Just as there is a broad using this to shore up comprehensive set of factors driving a continuation of understanding, is fundamental. So is the practice of child marriage in Turkana time. Some solutions may be more today, so too there must be a broad set of immediate, but addressing child marriage solutions. These range from rescue and is a long-term, generational issue. Most rehabilitation to long-term strengthening of all it will require close collaboration of education and protection systems, between the state and its partners and and true integration of local perspectives the Turkana community, to allow girls to and participation. choose a life path without risking the love and membership of their family and This research spoke to girls, mothers, community. Child rights do not need to elders, teachers, social workers and be in conflict with traditional culture, champions. Their words, and the and it is community-led solutions to case studies in the following section, development which will champion them.

30 Family Assets Understanding and Addressing Child Marriage in Turkana

Annex 1: Case Studies

(Please Note Real Names Are Not Given)

1. Akai My name is Akai, and I am about 18 years old. I have one child, who is 4 years old, and I am pregnant with a second child. I live in a rural area, I never went to school, and I was married about five years ago. My in-laws came and talked to my father. They negotiated at my father’s place and then I was given as his wife. I didn’t know the man. My father had just been raided near Todonyang by Merille raiders [from Ethiopia] and lost all his animals, so when he was approached with an offer of bride wealth for me he could not refuse. The bride wealth would support my other siblings, the rest of the family. I never suspected anything at the time, I thought they were just visitors of my father. When I was told, I knew there was bride wealth coming to my family so I could not refuse. They have finished the payment now. It was 20 goats. I will take my children to school. They will have a different life to mine. This is because there is a law where if you don’t take your child to school you will be punished. I hope that in future they can look after themselves.

31 2. Mary It might have been good if my parents had kept me at home until 18 and then married me, as the law says. I would have had a better understanding of what was happening. My mind would have opened up and I would have seen and understood things a bit better—like what was going to happen to me. My parents had split their children, as all pastoralist parents do, into those who would go to school and those who would stay at home and. So I knew that this would happen to me. My parents did not fear the law, because they had some children in school as the government wanted. Those children who were selected to go to school went on to get jobs like a teacher and a clinical officer. But for me I was chosen to look after the animals and I knew that eventually I would be married for them to receive bride wealth from that. I was in a pastoralist place near with my family, taking care of the animals. One day the uncle of my husband came, and he spoke to my father. I was not in school but I was about nine years old. I had not yet got my first period. I remember that visit of my husband’s uncle to my father’s home. I don’t know why they chose me but the families knew each other, I even knew the boy because he was my neighbour. After they had talked my father asked for me and handed me over to my husband. I was taken to my husband’s home and I stayed there. I was full of fear at that time, I didn’t know what was ahead of me. I was kept in my husband’s parents’ home until my first period. Then I was given my own hut and I started living with my husband and conceived my first child. Now I have six children, including twins. This story happens a lot in pastoralist communities like the one I grew up in. It doesn’t happen so much in towns because of the law. The law is a bit strict around Lokitaung town, but it doesn’t reach my community.

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3. Charity My father and two of my sisters were killed by Pokot, so I was raised by just my mother. A Good Samaritan sponsored my school but with conflict and the lack of jobs I met a man and followed him to Lodwar. We didn’t have a wedding but we now have two children. My mother would have liked some animals paid as bride wealth, but this man had nothing. Many people used to have a lot of wealth but are now very poor. There is nothing to give to parents, and parents have nothing to give to you. So you are picked by any man, off the street. That life of pastoralism is a good one. Sometimes I think it would’ve been better than the life of school and town. Your parents get animals when you marry, can buy things they need, and have milk and meat to live on. For me, having been given for free to a man is a problem. It’s bad to just go for free. The man should appreciate your value by paying animals to your parents, and he has to show he appreciates your parents. I cannot feel pride when I am not seen as a married woman, or an asset to my parents. Because a woman has lower status and won’t be listened to, if she has not had bride wealth paid for her. People are always aware which women have had bride wealth paid for them, even in towns. It doesn’t matter how educated you are—if you are not traditionally married you have lower status and you will not be listened to. And people know. Nowadays, a woman in Turkana who has been traditionally married will be listened to. One who has not been traditionally married may even be told to sit down. I need to have my bride wealth paid so that I can have a voice.

33 It is a curse to not be married, and that curse follows my children too. When you are not formally married, your children are not their father’s. They belong to your parents, and anything they receive like sponsorship or bride wealth will also belong to your parents. Their father is different to a father who has paid everything for them, and owns them; he might be there, and he might provide security to them, but they belong to their mother’s family because he has not contributed anything for them. He might even be paying their school fees, and he might have had a church wedding—but if he has not married in the traditional way, where he pays animals and slaughters a bull, then his wife and the children are not considered his. According to Turkana, he is a weaker father—so weak. If he can, he might pay everything, to own them, because Turkana people value children and want to own them. And children want to be owned by their father; they know who owns them. My husband will try to pay for my children later. Many men today in towns are rude. They might be able to pay bride wealth, and know that they should, but they don’t. They ignore it. Whereas in the rural context it is a must that a man pays. If he doesn’t, the woman’s relatives come and push for that payment, or even just take everything, to cover the bride wealth. The problem is if the woman’s relatives are not there, or not strong. I hope my father’s relatives will push my husband for bride wealth! It will change things for me—after that I will be able to stand firm. Maybe in some towns, among people who have gone to schools, you will be respected for who you are. But in most places, and even in most towns, your status and your voice comes from people knowing you are traditionally married. We must follow our culture. This is true even in towns. It is a must. People in the interior need to know about rights, especially rights of girls, and about the importance of education—but we also need to know about the culture and its importance. Look at this woman passing us—you can see she is traditionally married. She is wearing the brass neck ring over her beads. I wonder if I would like that life—it is hard for sure, but it is a good thing to have the marriage completed and to have a wedding where a bull is slaughtered.

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4. Veronica A year ago, when I was about 11, my parents took me from Lodwar to a rural area so that I could put on beads and be married. They wanted me to be given to a man, so I couldn’t look like a girl from town—I had to put on traditional clothes and beads and look like a rural girl. My parents would have got something from this man, if I had married him, but I didn’t want to. My aunt is a woman from town and knows about education, so she sided with me and agreed that I should go to school. This caused conflict, my parents were not happy. But with my aunt’s help I was able to leave, go back to Lodwar with her, and go back to school. My parents stayed in that rural place when I refused to be married. I don’t go to stay with them, I don’t even want to talk with them… I am afraid they might still try to take me. And I want to complete school.

35 5. Cynthia I was in school and I loved going to school. Then one day, two years ago, my father asked me to marry an old man. I told him no, I can’t marry an old man, because I am in school. But when I came back from school that day my father beat me and insisted that I get married. He said to me, ‘Cynthia, you don’t need to continue with school; only boys need to continue with school.’ My brother told me I should disappear, he told me to be careful because I was still young and if our father got hold of me he would force me to marry the old man. He had seen that the man my father had chosen was a much older man. The next day my father came home and told me again I would get married. He called the man, who brought animals. I was taken to the old man’s home, but I ran away at night. I found a vehicle going to Lodwar and got a lift even though I had no money. I didn’t know anyone there but I went into a primary school and asked to see the head teacher. I told him the whole story. He called someone from the Diocese who took me home. We went to the old man, who said my father forced him to marry because he wanted animals. Then we went to the police station, and finally back to Lodwar where I could continue my education. At home other girls were married at the same age; no one else refused. It’s difficult to refuse, even if you are desperate to go to school like I was. Your parents will not accept your refusal, and they may beat you. My plan is to finish school and then to be a nun. I remember how my father gave me to a man; I want to be a nun because I don’t want to associate again with men. And I don’t want to marry and have my father say, ‘Why did you refuse to marry the man I chose, and now you’ve chosen another to marry?’ I’d rather keep off men, and live my life. If I’m a nun, no man will be able to disturb me. We should tell girls how important education is. And parents who try to stop their children going to school should be taken to the police to learn the hard way about the importance of education.

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